DRUG ABUSERS KEEP KIDS AWAY FROM PARK

KANNAPOLIS -- Zuly Rodriguez could heave a rock from her duplex on Wilson
Street and come close to hitting a small playground just down the road.

But she won't let her kids play there.

"She tells us don't touch drugs, that's why we can't go down there," said
Philis Rodriguez, Zuly's 9-year-old son who relays questions to his mother
in Spanish and translates her answers into English.

On a warm and sunny Thursday afternoon, well after school hours, no
children climbed, swung or slid on the bright blue-and-yellow equipment in
the center of the small lot.

Residents on Wilson and adjoining streets -- part of the James Street
Community -- say the concern over drug use on and around the playground
keeps them and their children away.

City parks officials share those concerns. At it's March meeting, the
Kannapolis Parks and Recreation Commission agreed to ask police to step up
enforcement around the small park.

Police Chief Paul Brown says his department is "doing everything within our
lawful authority, and within our resources" to combat drugs in the community.

"We've been working very aggressively over there the last two years," he
said. "We've been very effective, but we haven't been very visible with it."

In addition to regular patrols, the department maintains an office in the
community and has assigned an officer to the James Street neighborhood to
provide residents a familiar face and make it easier for them to work with
police.

That's worked, with residents helping police target specific drug dealers,
Brown said. And investigators have run undercover operations to arrest
people buying and selling drugs in the neighborhood.

But Brown said police have received only three drug-related calls near the
playground since January 2000. And he said the park itself is not the problem.

"It's a victim of its location," he said.

The James Street Community Park sits near the bottom of a hill near where
Wilson Street dead-ends at a wooded area. One house sits between the park
and the woods, with two more across the street.

Surrounding streets are lined with small, modest houses and rental duplexes.

A couple of years ago, the city condemned and demolished a two-story
apartment house on the lot that was a source of drug dealing and violent
crime. The city installed the playground as a goodwill gesture to the
community.

But drug problems can't be carried away with demolition debris. And the
park has been a hangout for at least some who wanted a quiet place to drink
alcohol or take drugs, Parks and Recreation Director Gary Williams said.

Mills said he has found empty beer cans, wine bottles and the remains of
marijuana cigarettes in the small park.

"Drug usage is an issue in and around the park," Mills said. He added that
the problem is "not so much the park, it's the area around it." He believes
the problem "has gotten better recently than what it had been."

Brown said police will continue attacking the crime, with the help of a
"good neighborhood filled with good people."

"It is a problem that does not lend itself to a simple and quick
solution,"he said. "But the problems are being addressed by us."